In this recorded webinar Shawn Cooper, Senior Curriculum Lead and science presenter from Home Learning TV, shares his thoughts and insights on developing a local curriculum and what embedding mātauranga Māori into the science classroom could look like.
Tino pai rawa atu! Thank you so much for a thought provoking but also highly practical and personally extremely useful discussion. Truly appreciate the time and thought that has gone into this.
Participant
Shawn has worked across primary, secondary and tertiary settings in Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand and brings knowledge from his own personal and professional journey as a non-Māori wanting to uphold mana ōrite mō te mātauranga Māori.
During the webinar we will share a range of examples and resources to support you in developing a local curriculum that embeds mātauranga Māori.
This was an inspiring webinar. Fantastic presenter. It helped to answer some questions we had been having as a department.
Science teacher
This session will be valuable for both primary and secondary school teachers.
Nga mihi. That was a great session.
Participant
You can download the video and slideshow presentation.
Index
| Topic | Slideshow number(s) | Video timecode |
| Introducing the Science Learning Hub | 1–2 | 00:00 |
| Index | 3 | 00:36 |
| Introducing Shawn Cooper | 4–5 | 00:48 |
| Purpose | 6 | 03:30 |
| This is scary. Where do I start? | 7–10 | 04:41 |
| How do I avoid being tokenistic? | 11–16 | 11:44 |
| Connecting to mana whenua | 17–19 | 17:19 |
| Am I being asked to teach religion in my science class? | 20–23 | 23:27 |
| What if there’s no mātauranga to fit the context? | 24–31 | 33:46 |
| SLH links, keep in touch and thanks | 32–35 | 42:22 |
Related PLD webinars
Watch our related webinars:
- What is a knowledge system?
- Opportunities for using te reo Māori with Professor Rangi Mātāmua
- Matauranga Māori with Associate Professor Hēmi Whaanga
- Mātauranga and the Living World with Yvonne Taura
- Te Repo – wetlands as a context for learning
- Whakanui pūtaiao – two primary teachers share their ideas
- Tame Malcolm – indigenous pest management
- Kaitiakitanga with Tame Malcolm
- Te Kāhui o Matariki and the environment
- Animals of Aotearoa
Related content
For an introduction to mātauranga Māori and science, read this article and, to discover many more resources, explore our mātauranga Māori topic. Many of our resources incorporating te reo Māori can be found in this article here.
Project Mātauranga is a television series that investigates Māori world views and methodologies within the scientific community.
Indigenous knowledge is increasingly valued, but to fully respect it we need to decolonise science – find out more in this article.
To explore different aspects of research utilising science and mātauranga Māori, have a look at our Pinterest curation of resources here.
Activity idea
Māori knowledge of animals – local contexts encourages ākonga to explore animals of interest to them or of local relevance to their rohe or local area. They are challenged to look beyond the generic features of the animal to consider local mātauranga and/or other local connections.
Useful links
Watch this Mātauranga Māori in Education, Education Hub webinar recording with Dr Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal (Marutūahu, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngā Puhi) from 2023.
Evidence supports the teaching of Indigenous knowledge alongside sciences in the classroom, read more in Amanda Black, Jason M. Tylianakis, Teach Indigenous knowledge alongside science. Science 383, 592–594 (2024). DOI:10.1126/science.adi9606.
